A Tumble in the Hay
by EtincelleD'OR
Summary: While filling haynets, Lenobia ponders her long-distance relationship with her mate. When his flight arrives early, what better than a tumble in the hay? Even if it is -7 outside, & not before you've broken his nose that is. Funny sidestory to Resurrected


**_A Tumble in the Hay_**

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**Me: Hi guys! Thanks again to beta-reader Tsuki-Himitsu!!! R&R!!!**

**Rated: M – not hardcore stuff here but thought that rating it as a T would be pushing it a bit...**

**Notes:**

**If any of you are wondering why Anastasia is alive twelve years after the setting of the books and has a daughter and why there are generally bits that don't fit in with the books, it's because this oneshot is based on another fic of mine, called "Resurrected", the events in that explain the ones in this. **

**Translation of first line from German – **_**"Fröhliche Weihnachten und 'nen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr" **_**means "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year", but is literally translated as "a good slide into the New Year". **_**"Eher 'nen guten Rutsch auf'm Eis"**_** means "More like a good slide on the ice", which is a reference to the icy conditions lol I love puns! **

"**Ach moye Bohyně" means "Oh my Goddess" in Czech. You'll see why.**

**The other part of the story which is confusing to people who aren't scientists is the bit where they're talking about neurology and neurones. The relevance is that Eliás' power is Electrokinesis, neurones work by depolarisation caused by voltage-sensitive gates. It implies that he can use his power to incite sexual pleasure. **

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"_Fröhliche Weihnachten und 'nen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr... eher 'nen guten Rutsch auf 'm Eis..."_

Lenobia muttered to herself as she stood, hands on her hips, before a pile of thirty empty haynets strewn over the bales in the barn. It was Christmas Eve, it was snowing like no tomorrow. The weather had been all over the place, meaning that the snow had partially melted and the frozen again, causing the parts of the yard exposed to the elements to rather resemble ice-skating rinks. Very soon it would be Strictly Come Dressage on Ice if they weren't careful.

Being Christmas Eve, it meant that the people she employed to help run the yard by daytime all had the night and the following day off. Strange, some people called it. Why employ humans? Especially on the campus of a House of Night. Well, in Lenobia's mind, the answer was simple. There were thirty horses on the yard. There were twenty four hours in the day. Each horse required one hour exercise and two hours care. You do the maths. Lenobia employed four full-time riders, and five working pupils, that is people who worked in the stables in return for lessons. The fact that she employed humans, was, to her, irrelevant. The fledglings, although some were knowledgeable, most were not. Four years was not enough to teach them everything, and besides, even if the fledglings ever felt like staying on into their holiday time, they were nocturnal, horses were not. She couldn't manage thirty animals all by herself day and night.

Anyway. The point of the fact was, that her nine people, her nine pillars of support in the times when silly fledglings didn't cross rug-surcingles properly, or put the wrong brushing-boots on the wrong legs, were at home with their families sipping champagne and nibbling on mince pies. And of course, that meant that tonight, Lenobia was feeding these horses by herself. Hard feeds were done, now thirty haynets to fill, and some of the fast eaters already kicking their doors. Sometimes, if they could be persuaded, Anastasia Lankford, a very competent horsewoman herself – some things were given when you were the daughter of the Tsar of Russia – and her mate Dragon, actually equally competent but less eager to admit to it, would allow themselves to be dragged out on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to share the mucking-out and other duties with her. However, this time, they had jetted off with their two year-old daughter Evie (now that was another story entirely) to Valencia, a beautiful place on the east coast of Spain where Dragon had grown up, and they weren't due back until something ridiculous like three o' clock in the afternoon! Typical.

Picking up the first haynet, Lenobia hopped up onto a few stacked bales, and then down into pit of loose hay. It was a strange set up, and if Lenobia admitted it, not an entirely safe one. It was an arrangement where the stacked hay bales lined the inside of the barn like a thick insulating inside wall. People used up the bales from the inside out, so there was a little gap in the middle of all the bales of about ten square feet, accessible by climbing over a little ledge three bales or so high. Jumping down into the square, Lenobia barely needed to bend her knees, the layer of loose hay on the floor was so deep. Stuffing hay into the net from the nearest bale, she took a deep breath. The air smelled sweet. It was that horsey smell that Lenobia loved, and also probably took inside with her every day. As a child, Lenobia had always identified the smell of good hay as 'like teabags', a smell that relaxed and soothed. Ironically, it was just what she needed.

As she pulled the string tight on another haynet, she glanced at her watch. She wasn't even sure why she wore this thing. Vampyres always knew what the time was, it was a fact. She supposed she still wore it out of habit, a throwback, maybe. She hadn't even noticed that this was the fourth time she had looked at in the past half hour.

Her heart jumped happily as she stuffed more hay, a radiant smile creeping onto her face. He should have been here by now. However, it could not be helped. He had phoned her that evening, explaining that his flight had been delayed due to the snow, and that he would be catching another one that was due to fly in only two hours from now.

If, on the inside, she felt like she wanted to jump up and down like a teenage girl, it was because she wasn't used to this sort of thing. After a long time of being happily single, whilst in San Clemente she had met the Czech High Priest, Eliás Svboda. Yes, a High _Priest._ The only male avatar of Nyx that there had ever been. Unlike most male vampyres, Eliás had been gifted with a magical affinity as opposed to a physical one, which was extremely rare in itself. Electrokinesis, the ability to create and control electricity, electromagnetic fields and currents, made him probably the most powerful male vampyre alive. He was tall, a little over six feet, very elegant and very handsome, with grey eyes like a stormy sky and reddish-brown hair. He was _extremely_ intelligent, with degrees in Chemistry and Physics and an IQ of 172, the latter fact she had had to draw out of him, like water from a stone. As a High Priest he was strict, almost uptight, but as a person, he was friendly, so long as whoever he was talking to wasn't a complete idiot. They were similar in so many ways, sparks had flown, literally. Not intentionally, but there was just something, something that made him amazing. It wasn't his power, or his position... He was witty and sharp, so much fun to banter with. For her, he was an easy person to be with.

San Clemente was now twelve years ago, a distant yet scarring landmark in her life. In all of their lives. She had offered her blood to him then. He had been fighting Kalona, in flight, and it had started to rain. Eliás hadn't cared. He had still struck that bastard-warrior with everything he had, even though he knew that to use his powers in rain would inevitably kill him. Lenobia remembered so well how she watched him fall from the sky, becoming dizzy herself and feeling like she was falling through the floor, her heart racing, counting down, getting harder each time until he hit the stone floor, the sound of his bones breaking, his flesh bruising and his blood spilling still resounded in her ears, and she could even still smell burning meat.

To this day, Lenobia did not know if they had imprinted that day or not. At first, it seemed like they hadn't, and it remained like that way for ten years. She didn't see him again until they held a ten year reunion party. More sparks flew, literally, and an amazing relationship ensued. Although from what they both felt now, Lenobia wasn't entirely sure that they hadn't imprinted. If they had it was an incredibly slow-working one, yes, but different Imprints occurred between different people, it was like Nyx giving them a little push in the right direction. Take Anastasia and Dragon for example, their Imprint was a fierce one, and was rough with them at first. Even the first time she drank the tiniest amount of his blood the two of them were so overcome by lust and arousal that neither had had the control to desist from sex, even though they had only ever seen each other once before. But that was their little push. Dragon, too chivalrous and too self-demeaning to believe that he ever had a chance, and Anastasia, having never set foot in a House of Night until the Sixth Form, still set fast in human ways regarding sex and courtship. It made sense that the Imprint between them had been irrepressibly fiery and passionate. It had dissolved the wall between them that might have kept them apart until one of them was brave enough to jump it.

So where did that leave her? All she knew was that she felt extremely peaceful, calm, laid-back with him. Relaxed. Which was odd in itself, as Lenobia was not what one would consider to be a relaxed person. She could look it, and act it, but she could never feel completely at ease, there was always so much to worry about. With him, there was a feeling of complete and utter trust. He had once told her that he had felt that too, but that could easily be attributed to love without an Imprint, as could any increase in heart rate or a butterfly in the stomach. There was one other thing Lenobia still didn't know.

Was it easier to experience an Imprint, or was it easier to fall in love?

Furthermore, was it easier to believe that you were experiencing an Imprint, or to believe that you were in love?

At least with an Imprint you could say that it wasn't your fault, that it had, quite literally, just happened and there was nothing you could do about it. With love, there were always choices involved.

Filling the last of the haynets, she loaded them onto the big wheelbarrow and pushed it through the snow into the stable block. As she got to the first stable, belonging to a four year old chestnut warmblood by the name of Pandor, the horse latched onto the collar of her coat with its teeth and just stood there, holding onto her, very like a little child would hold on tight to the hand of their mother.

"Hallo kleiner..." she said, scratching the horse behind the ears, "Was machste da mein Junge?" _Hello little one... Whatcha doing there boy?_

Pandor nibbled on her coat, before placing a big fat lick on her cheek which clearly said _'I love you mommy'_. That was not exactly normal horse behaviour, and Lenobia had a slight suspicion that this horse had been raised by dogs before he came here from Germany. He was, for a horse, overly touchy, but extremely cuddly in a way that not even she could deny.

Lenobia swore that she would be proud of her affinity. Her gift. Communication with horses. Well, she could not so much call it communication, to do so much would be to presume that horses were of human intelligence, which they were not. Lenobia likened them to toddlers who couldn't speak. Her ability gave her a brief understanding of what they were thinking, and then only that which could be translated extraspecially. Equus was a mentality, rather than a language.

The truth of the fact was that she didn't need the affinity to know what was going through their horsey brains. She knew their behaviour so well, their body language was so readable, that, even though it sounded disrespectful, she did not need the affinity. It had caused her more trouble than it was worth, leading to a permanent ban from international competition due to unfair advantage over other competitors, and the general impression that she only achieved the good results she did with the horses because she was 'talking' to them. Despite never using the affinity, except in emergencies. It didn't make her any less of a horsewoman. Humans managed to understand their animals perfectly well.

Shutting the door of the last stable and shoving the kick-bolt over with the toe of her welly, she saw sure that life shouldn't bear so many questions and so few answers. Lugging the barrow back to the barn, she momentarily had to regain her balance as her boot slid on the ice. She had to remind the maintenance guys to grit the yard as well as the main campus...

Dropping down into the pit of hay again, she pulled off her gloves to tie the strings on the bale, the freezing air biting at her fingers. She hadn't heard any footsteps, much less anyone else climbing on the hay. So when something like an arm snaked around her waist and a hand appeared over her eyes, Lenobia took defensive action. Elbowing the intruder as hard as she could in the face, she grabbed onto the arm near her face, pulled it down, and with as much strength as she could muster, threw the intruder clean over her shoulder.

Inspecting her prey, who was now covered from head to toe in hay, Lenobia immediately broke out into fits of laughter.

He raised his hands to his face painfully. "I think you broke my nose!!!"

"What are you doing here?"

Eliás Svboda grinned guiltily, bits of hay sticking out of his coppery reddy-brown hair. "Surprise?"

Lenobia knelt down next to him and inspected his nose. "It's not broken." she said, giving him two small taps on the cheek. "Lucky escape, High Priest."

"Yes well there's nothing like entering the lion's den..." he said sarcastically, "Or in this case, the stables. Do you do that to everyone who sneaks up on you?"

Lenobia nodded. "Pretty much." She said, lying down in the hay next to him, "I've missed you."

He smiled. "I've missed you too." He said, leaning over her and kissing her, "Let's stay out here for a bit."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "And do what?"

"I can't imagine."

She smirked and paused. "You're not going to electrocute me again are you?"

Eliás gave the 'not very amused' look. "You really know how to floor a guy don't you?" he said, easing himself on top of her, "Physically _and_ emotionally."

She grinned. "I did it for a living once."

"I can imagine." He took a look over his shoulder at the snow outside, "Were going to get cold doing this..."

She shrugged. "We're going to get warm. You're the physicist, you work it out."

He purred under his breath and kissed her hard, sliding effortlessly between her legs. She pushed his coat off his shoulders and fiddled with the buttons on his shirt. As soon as she exposed enough of his neck, she quickly pulled out of the kiss and bit down on his neck, his blood, rich and dark spilled into her mouth.

Hid breath caught. "Le-Ah..." he moaned, his arm that supported him above her buckling, causing him to fall straight on top of her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and groaned into his neck, the vibrations making his muscles tense and his body writhe. Lenobia could feel his hot breath coming fast against her neck, along with mutterings of "Ach moye Bohyně".

As they hastily pulled each other's clothes off, completely oblivious to the cold and the slight scratchiness of the hay against their bare bodies, she felt him bite down on her neck and suck firmly. He was gone. She closed her eyes and let herself go too, straining towards him. He was far too good to be true.

She stopped drinking for a moment and whispered in his ear. "Getting warm yet?"

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"That, is going to be a seventy five dollar dry-cleaning bill."

"Don't look at me, I'm a horsewoman, you were never going to stay clean for long."

Eliás sighed as he held Lenobia in his arms. He felt her shiver. "Getting cold yet?"

Lenobia pulled his hay-covered coat further up over them, the last of the steam from their exhausted forms floating off into the air. She kept reminding herself how rare it was to even speak to him, let alone see him, making sure that she took every little moment for granted. Every spare opportunity he spent in Tulsa with her, but he didn't have enough spare opportunities.

"So have you figured out whether you're straight yet?"

He snorted. "Well, maybe..." he said, chuckling, "But at home I tell people about you and they don't believe you exist."

Lenobia laughed heartily. "What is it you've been telling the whole of Prague about me???"

"Well I tell them that you're beautiful, and clever and fun, and then I tell them you're a_ fantastic..._"

Lenobia cut that short. "And do you want to know what I tell people about you Eliás? I tell them exactly how inappropriately you use that affinity of yours and they think it's hilarious." He pulled a face, "Yeah, how many degrees did you have to take to pull off that one, do you have one in neurology now too?"

"Your neurones didn't complain."

"My neurones are extremely grateful and wish to extend their thanks for this unprovoked piece of genius, in fact the sodium ions and the potassium ions seem to be getting on for once in a while."

He chortled. "Oh Goddess, why won't you come and live in Prague?" he complained mockingly.

"And here I thought it was me you wanted to come and live with you." she retaliated, "Why won't _you _come and live in Tulsa?"

"I would." He said sadly, placing a kiss her crown.

"So would I." She said more quietly. "Eliás..." she said, now more serious, "Do you think we imprinted that day in San Clemente?" she asked. He paused for a few seconds, rolling the thoughts around in his mind. When he didn't answer straight away, she continued, "Every day I wonder, if we did, or if..." she trailed off, "It doesn't matter either way, it's just one of those infuriating bits of information that you could chase around in circles for years and never catch."

He thought again for a moment. "Well..." he said, pulling the bits of hay from her hair, "I like to look at it this way. How do you define an Imprint?"

"A deep spiritual bond initiated by blood drinking, the effects of which range from telepathic connections to feelings of lust and even love." She said.

"See." He said, "That's no different to what we have. It started when you saved me in San Clemente, lust..." his voice dimmed to almost nothing, "_Love_... And I do always know what you're thinking."

"But do you know what I'm thinking because of an Imprint, or because we're so similar and we know each other well?"

"Quite honestly..." he continued, "I don't care." He summoned his sincerest voice, "I love you. Be it by an Imprint or not."

A smile crept onto her serene face. "I love you too." She said.

"So, we love each other, and we always know what the other is thinking. If you ask me... Yes we did imprint that day. Even if it wasn't a vampyre Imprint, even if it wasn't given by Nyx. We did."

"Well put." She said, drawing small patterns on his chest with her finger. She felt him tremble and hold her tighter. "You're cold." She said, "Come on. Let's go inside."

Shaking as much hay off their clothes as they could, the redressed themselves and made their way up to Lenobia's quarters. "That's odd..." she said as they walked down the corridor and noticed that the door to Anastasia and Dragon's quarters was open and a light on inside, a couple of suitcases just outside the door, "They're back already?"

As if on cue, Anastasia appeared around the door to pick up some of the suitcases, but just ended up staring at Lenobia and Eliás instead, her eyes taking in the bits of hay they were both covered with.

"Morning." She said, grinning and trying to stop herself from laughing, "Looks like somebody's doing the walk of shame! Been for a little tumble in the hay have we?"

"Not one word Nastiya, not _one_ word!" said Lenobia, preparing to walk past.

At that moment Dragon appeared as well. "Evie's tucked up in bed." He said. He took one look at Lenobia and Eliás and began laughing. "That's a bit kinky for you two isn't it?"

"Why don't you two just get your room and we'll get ours."

Dragon raised an eyebrow. "You? Get a room? More like a hay bale!"

"Better yet..." Anastasia waved her hand around as if there was an unpleasant odour in the air. "Get a shower."

Lenobia walked off down to her quarters, Eliás soon after her. "I hate you guys." She said, leaving the old married couple in hysterics.

After they had finished laughing and elbowing each other in the ribs and were standing up straight again. Dragon finally had the composure to carry the suitcases in. Carrying them through to their bedroom, he returned to where Anastasia was making tea. Gratefully receiving a mug, he hoisted himself up and sat on the sideboard.

"So..." he said, "Shall we let them live this down?"

Husband and wife gave each other a sly look, and answered simultaneously.

"Nah."

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**R&R!!!**


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